Thursday, March 7, 2002

When the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens girls basketball playoffs began Feb. 27, some probably thought why even bother. Just let Christ the King and St. Francis Prep battle it out for the fourth consecutive year. Comment.

What we know as the American film industry got its start in Queens, at the Kaufman Studios, approximately 100 years ago. Since then, the movie business has gradually developed its major film factories in Hollywood - a name is now synonymous with billion-dollar profits and celebrities. Comment.

The St. Johns Red Storm will make its play for the Big East Tournament Championship this week. Winning the tournament would certainly help the Red Storms NCAA Tournament chances as well as give the team a boost in confidence following a disappointing loss in Villanova this weekend to end the regular season. Comment.

The St. Johns Red Storm blew a chance to all but lock up a berth into the NCAA Tournament Sunday when the team fell to the University of Villanova Wildcats, 77-62, in the final Big East Conference game for both teams. Comment.

There has to be a better way of balancing the citys budget than by adding tollbooths on the crowded bridges crossing the East River. Collecting tolls at either or both sides of the Queensboro Bridge would be a nuisance for drivers and a disaster for residents living near this bridge in Long Island City and Manhattans East Side. Comment.

I recently learned that the Browsers radio program, which emanated from Chicago and beamed throughout the country for more than 22 years, was abruptly dropped by its radio station. It was one of the few programs left in America that was keeping the big band fires alive. The big band sound, combining and integrating many musical instruments  brass, woodwind, string and percussion  to achieve an all-encompassing, ensemble sound, is systematically being drained from the musical life of America. Comment.

The influx of new immigrants has made Flushing the fastest-growing metropolis among the citys five boroughs. New stores and mini-malls have emerged one after another while construction projects continue to pulse through this part of Queens. Comment.

Nearly two dozen Queens residents were arrested last week in an unemployment insurance scam in which they were accused of bilking the state out of more than $130,000, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

As I gathered my thoughts together to write the speech I planned to give at the budget hearings in Queens Borough Hall, I turned the radio dial. An unnamed man seemed to be in the middle of an address to a large audience. Before I could focus on what he was saying, there was a long silence, followed by him saying, hesitatingly, Its so hot in here. There was another brief silence and then he apparently fell to the ground. Comment.

Each month the 107th Precinct Community Council holds a meeting on the next to the last or the last Tuesday of the month in the ready room of the 107th Precinct at 71-01 Parsons Blvd. in Flushing. Capt. Patrick Heaney attends these meetings along with his lieutenant, sergeant and other relevant police officers who can help him report to the people who attend these meetings. Comment.

First and foremost Shubert Denis, the owner of The Port-O-Prince Star Restaurant in Cambria Heights, is an accomplished painter. His paintings have hung in galleries and museums, but he loves the constant contact with the public owning a restaurant provides. Comment.

Parents at PS 87 in Middle Village held an impromptu celebration outside the school last Thursday evening after School Board 24 approved a rezoning resolution that will allow their children to stay in the school until eighth grade. Comment.

The tenure of school boards throughout the city could come to an abrupt end if Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets his way, but until then the newly elected member of School Board 29 believes he can make a difference. Comment.

Musica Reginae Productions continues its Accolade Concert Series for 2002 with The Art of the Song, an illuminating exploration into the world of lieder, opera and Broadway. This performance in Flushing Town Hall, a beautiful new concert space at 137-35 Northern Blvd., will be at 4 p.m. Sunday. Comment.

All of Queens was Irish Sunday as marchers from the Emerald Isle joined Mexican dancers, Korean drummers, politicians and borough residents in the third annual St. Patricks Day parade in Sunnyside, which drew larger crowds than ever. Comment.

In a move that has drawn the ire of some members of the City Councils Black and Hispanic Caucus, City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis) petitioned to join the group after being invited by two of the organizations leaders. Comment.

Over the past 10 years, the Hispanic population in Ridgewood has skyrocketed by 144 percent, with Hispanics now accounting for one out of every two residents, figures from the 2000 U.S. Census show. Comment.

With a ferocious debate over mayoral control of the citys public schools taking center stage and budget cuts forcing school districts to tighten their belts, the state of education in Queens has been anything but quiet and peaceful. Comment.

Days after the Sept. 11 attack on the Twin Towers, MS 67 fine arts teacher Anthony Ingoglia asked the students to do special projects in which they coupled images from newspapers and magazines with their own work to express their emotions. Comment.

Police and fire officials arrested five teens, including four juveniles, on charges of starting a fire at the Sears mall in Rego Park by pouring gasoline in an entranceway and lighting it with a match, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said last week. Comment.

A Richmond Hill moving company held hostage oxygen machines and other medical equipment belonging to a seriously ill customer, demanding $2,300 more than the original estimate to complete a move from Long Island to Georgia, a Long Island woman said. Comment.

Southeast Queens residents are wary of a city plan to reactivate wells from the Brooklyn-Queens Aquifer to help offset the impact of a looming drought because of fears the water may be contaminated. Comment.

A new plan could place retired law enforcement officers at John F. Kennedy International Airport as part of a pilot program to improve security in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, officials said. Comment.

Controversial Flushing developer Tommy Huang may still purchase and develop the historic Klein Farm in Fresh Meadows despite reports that he had given up on the contract, Huangs lawyer and the owner of the farm said. Comment.

The worlds first road built specifically for daily automobile use  a hidden jewel in the heart of eastern Queens  will finally receive the historic recognition it deserves, state Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Bayside) announced. Comment.

While bus drivers waved placards and walked the picket line last week, a smaller but more revolutionary strike was being waged by a unionized force of limousine drivers who decided to play cards rather than pick up passengers. Comment.

Some think the weekends are a good time for long, leisurely drives, but if you live near the interchange of the Cross Island Parkway and the Long Island Expressway, you may want to hold off on any weekend pleasure trips. Comment.

The morning commute to Manhattan along the Long Island Expressway, never really a walk in the park, turned into a crawl through the parking lot late last week as delays transformed brief treks along the boroughs central artery into hourlong odysseys. Comment.

The invitation to Thursday nights fund-raiser for Daniel Dromm, a fourth-grade public school teacher who is probably the boroughs most prominent gay rights activist, has all the trappings of an ambitious piece of campaign literature  with only one glaring omission. Comment.

A recent editorial in a weekly newspaper produced out of a small office on Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park blasted the bosses of two players selected to represent the United States at an international cricket tournament later this month for refusing to grant them time off from their jobs to compete. Comment.

A Flushing man was sentenced to six years in prison last week for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl, a friend of his daughter, and endangering the welfare of two sisters, the Queens district attorney announced. Comment.

Tired of hearing complaints about the smelly garbage strewn around Bell Boulevard, the Bayside Business Association stepped up to the plate last week by hiring a cleaning company to tackle the areas sanitation problems. Comment.

Queens residents could be injured and their water supply would be decimated if terrorists struck the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, Councilman James Gennaro (D-Jamaica Estates) said last week in calling for a shutdown of the Westchester County facility. Comment.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes will not seek the death penalty for the two people charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Rupinder Singh, the good Samaritan from Richmond Hill shot to death in July after offering a ride to strangers. Comment.

After more than 30 years with Bernard Haber of Douglas Manor at the helm of northeast Queens Community Board 11, the group elected Bayside Hills civic leader Jerry Iannece as its new chairman Monday night. Comment.

An old feud between state Sen. Daniel Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) and Jeff Wiesenfeld, an aide to both Democratic and Republican politicians for many years, resurfaced this week after Wiesenfeld claimed he had influenced the redrawing of district lines to pit Hevesi against state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing). Comment.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) pledged Saturday to find federal funding to help Queens deal with the impact of immigration on schools, housing and other services in the nations most ethnically diverse county. Comment.

The first stage of the citys redesign plans for Queens Plaza calls for the tangled streets to come together in a simpler pattern, with wider medians and a public square built where a parking lot now stands. Comment.

111th Police Captain Julio Ordonez acknowledged this week there had been a sharp increase in burglaries in the normally quiet northeast Queens precinct but said police were doing all they could to stop the crime spike. Comment.

Anxious borough residents flocked to John F. Kennedy International Airport last Thursday afternoon after hearing that the Air India flight carrying their relatives from London to Queens was being followed across the Atlantic by U.S. fighter jets. Comment.

Buses from three private lines once again rolled the streets of Queens Friday when a rapid response by city officials brought the drivers two-day strike to an end, but the threat of further service disruptions will loom until the city meets the unions demands. Comment.

WOODHAVEN  A passerby who stumbled upon two bandits dragging a safe across 91st Street near Jamaica Avenue helped foil the robbery of a McDonalds restaurant early Monday morning, police said. Comment.

Things could not have started on a worse note for the Archbishop Molloy Stanners in Friday nights Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan Tournament championship game against Brooklyns Xaverian High School. Then again, things could not have ended better. Comment.

Queensbridge native and former St. Johns basketball star Ron Artest was traded from the Chicago Bulls to the Indiana Pacers last month as part of a multi-player deal that also included Jalen Rose, Travis Best, Brad Miller, Ron Mercer and Kevin Ollie. And while Artest essentially left one sub-.500 team for another, it is as if he has been released from the Gulag. Comment.

Lees Jewel Box sparkled during playoff week with a victory over a wonderful Verdis Restaurant team. Katie Brent scored early and often to build a lead that lasted the whole game. Another gem of a game was played by Angelica Carmody. All Lees Jewels glowed in this game, especially Gillian Avery, Lisa Rooney and Angela Jurkovic. And, of course, the pearls Tanya Kozakis, Lacey Losgar and Jessica Mora. Although Verdis didnt win today, they had the best record during the regular season, paced by the spectacular play of Lexie Ma Comment.